Wednesday 19 June 2024

All three main parties in the UK’s 2024 General Election have now published their manifestos. As expected, the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have each devoted specific sections to immigration to convince voters that they have the answers on this much-debated policy area. There is much to compare and contrast in the tone and substance of each party’s pitch on immigration.

The Conservative Party

The Conservative Party manifesto attempts to convince voters to credit it for its self-described policy achievements on immigration while in government. It highlights the removal of the ability of almost all international students and care workers to bring dependants, increases in the Skilled Worker and Family application income threshold and a fall in small boat arrivals to the UK last year.

The focus is on controlling regular migration and stopping ‘illegal migration’ (hereafter ‘irregular migration’). On the former, the Conservatives pledge to:

• automatically raise salary thresholds for the Skilled Worker route and the minimum income requirement for the Family route in line with inflation;
• require health checks for migrants in advance of travel; and
• introduce a binding legal cap on migration numbers ‘which cannot be breached’, subject to an annual parliamentary vote.

On stopping irregular migration, the manifesto includes:

• a pledge to press ahead with the policy of removing irregular migrants to Rwanda with a ‘regular rhythm of flights every month…until the boats are stopped’;
• a promise to bring the Illegal Migration Act fully into force and ‘clearing the asylum backlog, with all claims processed in six months and the use of hotels ended’; and
• a commitment to sign further agreements to return irregular migrants to their home countries, similar to the deal with Albania.

The Labour Party

Like the Conservatives, the Labour Party manifesto pledges to reduce net migration, eliminate the asylum backlog and end the use of hotels for asylum seekers awaiting a decision. Labour then attempts to differentiate its offering by putting forward pledges to:

• end the Rwanda asylum seeker policy and use the money saved to establish a new Border Security Command with investigators, intelligence officers and cross-border police officers;
• create a new returns and enforcement unit with 1,000 additional staff to fast-track removals to safe countries and negotiate additional returns arrangements; and
• seek a new security agreement with the EU for real-time intelligence sharing and joint investigations.

On skilled migration, Labour pledges ‘joined-up thinking’ which links ‘immigration and skills policy’ in the form of:

• bars on employers who flout immigration or employment laws from hiring foreign workers;
• plans to strengthen the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) and enhance collaboration with skills bodies across the UK, such as the Industrial Strategy Council and the Department for Work and Pensions; and
• a pledge to implement workforce and training plans to reduce reliance on overseas workers in the health, social care and construction sectors.

The Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrat manifesto praises the UK’s ‘proud history of welcoming newcomers’ before claiming ‘our immigration system has been broken by the Conservatives’. The manifesto sets out the Liberal Democrats’ vision for a ‘fair, effective immigration system’, mainly by reversing several high-profile Conservative immigration policies. An extensive list of proposals includes:

• exempting NHS and care staff from the Immigration Skills Charge;
• allowing care workers to once again bring their families to the UK;
• expanding the Youth Mobility Scheme, increasing the age limit, abolishing fees and extending permission from two years to three years;
• lowering the income thresholds for family immigration applications;
• automatically granting Settled Status to those with Pre-Settled Status;
• moving work and student route policymaking out of the Home Office;
• scrapping the Illegal Migration Act and Rwanda scheme, investing the savings in clearing the asylum backlog;
• establishing a unit for asylum decisions with a three-month processing goal, then allowing asylum seekers to work if their cases take longer;
• simplifying the Immigration Rules to ensure greater parliamentary scrutiny of future changes;
• enhancing the powers of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration; and
• establish a firewall to prevent public agencies from sharing personal information with the Home Office.

Analysis

The Conservative manifesto struggles under the weight of the challenges already outlined and suffers from contradictory messaging – the party says it wants to ‘attract the best and brightest skilled migrants’ while trumpeting its restrictions on students and care workers bringing dependants as policy achievements. While it attacks Labour directly for having ‘no plan’ for immigration and allegedly planning to allow a ‘form of free movement to return’, it is the unspoken challenge of a different opponent, the immigration-sceptic Reform UK, that appears to have had the most influence over this platform. The Conservatives are keen to appear bullish on reducing net migration and stopping irregular migration in the face of their challengers from the Right. An annual cap on migration numbers is the kind of headline-grabbing policy aimed at these voters, and it is difficult to see how it is possible for such an arbitrary number to truly reflect ‘the costs and benefits of migration’ as they claim.

The Labour Party, in its manifesto, makes similar pledges to the Conservatives in key areas, coming across as keen not to offend the majority of voters whom, in common with the Conservative Party, it believes share these priorities. There are, however, outspoken attacks on the governing party for its Rwanda policy and the asylum backlog. Overall, it could be considered lighter in detail than the other two main party’s pitches, with general pledges to reform the points-based immigration system ‘with appropriate visa restrictions, and by linking immigration and skills policy’ not being fully fleshed out with concrete policy. The proposal to strengthen the independent and respected MAC is welcome; however, linking immigration and skills policy by requiring a high level of inter-departmental coordination may be difficult to implement.

The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto presents the most detailed and extensive selection of policy proposals. It is the most engaged with the complexities of the UK’s immigration and asylum system in its present form. Automatic granting of Settled Status, allowing care workers to once again bring their families to the UK and setting up a unit for asylum decisions (enabling asylum seekers to work if their cases take longer than three months) are all refreshing responses to the challenges posed by the end of free movement, the workforce needs of the UK’s overstretched health and social care systems and an asylum system which it is difficult to describe as anything other than broken. Unlike the Conservative and Labour manifestos, there is no pledge to reduce net migration, and the tone is different, emphasising ‘dignity and respect’ for those engaged in the immigration and asylum systems over the ‘control’ repeated so many times in the Tory manifesto and Labour’s more technocratic approach.

All three main parties will hope that their pledges on this most emotive and contentious policy area will win over voters come 4 July.

Get in touch

To learn more about upcoming changes to UK immigration law, please refer to our website, contact your assigned LDI lawyer or email enquiries@lauradevine.com.